Montreal Canadiens @ Washington Capitals
Ice Hockey : United States / Canada : NHL
Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals - Game 1 - 7pm US

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Washington Capitals

Washington finished the NHL regular season with a franchise record 121 points and 54 wins. They were the best team in the NHL and are the top seeds going into the postseason. They will be wary though, as they know the postseason games can be trickier. 2 years ago, the Capitals were knocked out in the first round by Philadelphia, and last year, after getting past the New York Rangers over 7 tough games, they were dumped out by Pittsburgh in game 7 of the semis.

Washington are always lethal on attack, led by Ovechkin. This year however, the rest of the team has been chipping in too. While Ovechkin is the leagues top scorer, the Capitals also have the leagues topscoring defenceman, Mike Green. Backstrom, who partners Ovechkin in attack, recorded 101 points this season. Only 4 players have done that in the NHL this season. Washington have scored a league leading 318 goals this season, 46 more than Vancouver, who are next.

In defence, Jose Theodore will be goaltending. He used to play for the Canadiens and has actually not been great against them, going 2-1-1, surrendering about 4 goals per game and a save percentage of .877

However, over the course of this season Theodore was 30-7-7 with a .911 save percentage and a 2.81 goals against average.

Montreal

While Washington made it into the postseason with loads of games to spare, Montreal left it till the very last regular season game to book their postseason spot. They got the point they needed via an OT loss to Toronto, going just 3-4-4 over their last 11 games. They are, understandably, seeded last.

Montreal are dire on offence, scoring a league-worst 132 goals at even strength and not one of its forwards scored more than 28. The Canadiens leading scorer is Tomas Plekanec with 70 points (which would have just been just 5th if he played for Washington).

Goalkeeper Jaroslav Halak is the only chance Montreal has with a .924 save percentage; Jose Theordore's numbers on the other hand were quite pedestrian on the year, however they improved dramatically since mid-January (20-0-3, 2.58, .922). Washington was 30-5-6 at Verizon Center this year. The Canadiens were 19-17-5 in road games. That does not bode well for the Habs.

Betting Verdict

I am confident the Capitals are going to win this game handily. Washington locked up the No. 1 spot a couple of weeks ago behind the leagues best offence with 7 of its forwards scored 21 or more goals. The Habs and Caps have never faced each other in the postseason before but this looks like a complete mismatch.

Game 2 of this series is set for Saturday night in D.C. and the Caps will want to be 2-0 up before the Habs host the third game on Monday.

It's going to be non-stop attack from the Capitals, and I expect them to put this one out of reach by the time we get to the 3rd period.

The Pick :

Washington to win

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Washington to win in regulation @ 1.60 (Bet365) - MAIN BET

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Washington -1.5 goal handicap @ 2.10 (Bet365